55: Why is the organ so difficult?

Other than the human voice, no instrument has ever been more important in the music of the Church than the organ. The Church has been incredibly important in the development of the musical tradition we have today, so it stands to reason that the most important instrument in the most important force behind the musical tradition we carry forward each day deserves plenty of attention. That’s my goal over this next series of 4 articles, each one covering a different aspect of the organ.

First, I want to discuss why it’s so difficult to play the organ, and why a very good pianist will almost certainly not cross over right away into a very good organist (thought that transition can and certainly does happen— after lots of practice).

The piano has 1 keyboard— almost always 88 keys, although there are some models (the Bosendorfer Imperial, for example) that go slightly beyond that. You play with both hands, but at least all you have to do is navigate the placement of 2 hands on a one-dimensional left-right line. (Please don't misconstrue this as putting down pianists; pianists, and their instrument are absolutely wonderful.) The organ, meanwhile, most of the time, has several keyboards that are stacked like stairs. Now, you not only have the left-right one-dimensional aspect of the piano, you have the up-down second dimensional aspect, since one hand might be playing on a completely different keyboard at the same time as the other hand.

I spend 8 hours a day typing on a computer writing code for a living; I’m neither a pianist nor an organist (my instrument has always been the violin, though I do write for keyboard quite extensively), so what often helps me to think about how difficult this is— or to give an analogy to someone like me— is to imagine the following: writing code on one screen with one hand looking at one monitor using one keyboard, while simultaneously writing an email to my boss with my other hand looking at a different monitor using a different keyboard. If that sounds incredibly difficult, good—you understand how hard it is to play the organ well. 


But that’s not all. There are two more layers that make the organ even more complex: the pedals and the stops. First, the pedals. They’re nothing like the pedals on a piano, which function only to slightly change the color of the sound: softer, warmer, more sustained. The pedals on an organ are, in a very real sense, another manual, played simultaneously as the hands, by one or both feet. (It is from these pedals that we get “pedal point” and related terms.) Herein lies the complexity: two hands plus two feet are four limbs, which are not just twice as hard to coordinate as hands-only. Each additional limb adds more complexity than the previous. Playing with both hands and both feet well is an incredible testament to the skill of great organists.

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